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The Lord of the Rings Online: The epic quest line told in pictures
It's been one full year since Turbine released The Lord of the Rings Online to the public. The game has seen four large content updates since April 24, 2007 which have increased the amount in land available in the game by over 50% and added everything from new raid instances to the ability to play as a chicken.There has also been a huge advancement in the ongoing storyline of the game, which is separated into different "Books." These Books give the player a way to leave their mark on Middle-earth without interfering with the story already set by J. R. R. Tolkien, whose works the game is based off of. Here is a look back at the storyline that has progressed in the past year.Click on the first image in the gallery below to experience each epic storyline including appearances by fan favorites such as Gandalf, Elrond and the Fellowship of the Ring. %Gallery-21290%
The Lord of the Rings Online's one-year anniversary: A look back
In releasing Book 13 on its one-year anniversary, the Lord of the Rings Online finishes off its first year with five large content updates, known as Books. In addition to new epic storylines, the lore progressed significantly this past year as new Books were added. Let's take a look at all the changes made since April 24, 2007.The game began with eight questing zones and one player-versus-monster-player zone as well as seven classes and 10 crafting professions. It also launched many promises from the developers for much-demanded features such as player-owned houses and Fishing. At this point it was very difficult to reach the level cap of 50 due to a lack of significant content in the level 30-50 range, which Turbine promised to address. And that promise materialized with the first free content patch. Find out what Book 9 brought to the game ===>>
LotRO, A Look Back: Books 10 & 11
On August 21, 2007, Book 10: The City of Kings was released and opened up the city of Annúminas was for players to experience. Unfortunately, the city had been invaded by the forces of Angmar, and players had to fight to keep certain points of the city friendly to them. If they failed, the entire area will fall under the Witch-king's control. Hunters and Captains both received class reviews, and a new mechanic was introduced called Critter Play. Different than PvMP, Critter Play allowed players to take on new forms in a PvE setting. The first form introduced was that of a chicken. Not to be outdone, Trolls, and Rangers were introduced into PvMP as well as a very large polish pass on PvMP as a whole.Other new features brought to the game were factions with the major races (with rewards for increasing said faction) and the bartering system which allowed players to turn in certain monster drops for armor rewards. And of course, no Book is complete without a raft of new quests introduced for high level players to grind through.
Book 12 updater available via torrent
Those looking to download and patch their Lord of the Rings Online client ahead of time look no further. A torrent (available here) made by Turbine allows those with the Book 11 patch to pre-patch themselves and thus log in right away after server maintenance is over this Wednesday. New players can't use the patch as it only supports those with the Book 11 patch, but hey at least everyone else can, right?Well, not exactly. If you've got the EU version of Lord of the Rings Online, then you're sadly out of luck as this patch won't work for you -- so it isn't all sunshine and daisies. This patch also won't work for the Roheryn preview server -- no surprise there, though. We're unsure as to why European players are left in the cold, but at least everyone else can get themselves pre-patched as soon as they like. Still, it's always nice when a developer goes out of there way to make sure most players can get right into the new patched up game after downtime ends. Hopefully next time they'll just make sure to have the EU players covered as well.
Turbine talks Korean LotRO, Book 11, Book 12, and more
There's a lot of buzz going for The Lord of the Rings Online. Book 11 was recently released, and it was the game's biggest update so far. Book 12 is in the works. Most importantly from a big-picture standpoint, Turbine has secured deals to launch the game in the Korean and Chinese markets.Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel and Adam Mersky talk to Ten Ton Hammer about all these things and more in a new interview. The Korean launch looks like it might go very well, and it appears that Book 12 will be all about "customization." We've already picked up some details about new options for player housing, but that's only the beginning. Players will soon be able to change their characters' hair at a barber shop.Book 12 will also introduce some sort of system that will allow players to "maintain what they present outwardly to the other players and modify their stats in two different channels," meaning a player will have options if he or she really wants that new piece of armor that has great stats but that looks ridiculously out of place on his or her character.Cool! No details yet on how exactly that will work, though.
New LotRO dev diary video: Player housing
Lord of the Rings Online producer Jeffrey Steefel has released another one of his video dev diaries. These are a series of short videos that explain different features of the game for people who haven't played before.This installment covers the newly introduced Player Housing of Book 11. Jeffery covers the Neighborhood concept, the different racial homes, the various housing sizes as well as decorating, permissions and upkeep. It's an excellent introduction for those interested in this aspect of the game.
Fellowships versus soloing in LotRO epic storylines
Many of you will have completed Lord of the Rings Online's latest epic storyline from Book 11 by now, and you may have found that you could accomplish this task all on your lonesome. This topic was raised on LotRO's official forums, and whilst the initial poster was against the idea of a solo-able epic quest, the overwhelming response of the thread was that of people who had finished soloing it and loved it, or those that didn't realize it could be done alone and were keen to log in and get started.To date, most of the Books have been composed of a mix of solo and fellowship portions, and this was reinforced for future books later in the thread by a member of Turbine's LotRO team, MadeOfLions (fantastic name by the way), who said, "we're letting the needs of the story dictate the group sizes, rather than the other way around", and also that Book 12 should be a return to a more fellowship-oriented quest line.It's nice to have a mix between the two formats, solo and grouped, because let's face it -- a fellowship isn't always available -- and with Book 11 giving my class of choice, the Minstrel, a little more solo-power, I enjoy having only one life bar to watch over for a change.
LotRO gets gold edition, Europe only
All that is gold does not glitter -- unless you happen to live in Europe. As of this week, Lord of the Rings Online: Gold Edition is now available across Europe, but it's been confirmed as exclusive to the region.The Gold Edition contains all the bells & whistles you'd expect: a Book 11 version of the game with a 45 day subscription, three unique in-game items for use in the Book 11 Housing, and a unique in-game mount -- the Bree Horse.But what's slightly unusual is that you can use the new mount a full ten levels earlier than you gain the Riding trait in LotRO, without paying a dime for it. Admittedly, the Bree Horse comes with different stats -- but it still must be a little vexing to those outside of Europe.Is the Gold Edition going to be enough to convince you to pick up LotRO? Or if you're elsewhere in the world, do you wish this had got a release where you live?Further details about the Gold Edition can be found in the recent LotRO devchat.
The Rift loot guide part three lists Minstrel, Lore-master goodies
Ten Ton Hammer has been giving us the lowdown on all the shiny new gear LotRO players can acquire in The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu, the new raid instance Turbine added to the game in the Book 11 update. First they listed the coin rewards. Second, it was the gem rewards for Guardians and Champions. They've just launched part three and this time they're covering all the sweetness Minstrels and Lore-masters can acquire with the elusive gems that drop in the instance.Lore-masters can get a new armor set awesomely and appropriately called "The Elder Days," which gives mad stat boosts as well as some shadow damage mitigation. Minstrels can gather up the pieces of a suit of armor called the "Armour of the Wandering Bard," which provides similarly sweet stat bonuses and tactical critical modifiers. There are new weapons for both classes as well.It's excellent gear, and all this on top of all the other lovin' Minstrels and Lore-masters got in Book 11. We'll let you know when part four of the guide hits the streets.
LotRO Vault maps Goblin Town, where Gollum be sneakin'
Turbine's Book 11 update for The Lord of the Rings Online included an impressive amount of content. It had player housing, a new instance called The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu, and class updates for the Minstrel and Lore-master classes. It also introduced Goblin Town , the place where Bilbo was captured in The Hobbit, into the game-world.LOTRO Vault has posted a map of Goblin Town. From the Slave Pens to Gollum's Cave, they've got it all covered. If this is all new to you, you might want to also check out LOTRO Vault's directory of Book 11 screenshots of High Pass and Goblin Town too. Gorgeous.The Book updates keep chipping away farther and farther into the eastern parts of Eriador. Could Moria be next? We hope so. We wants it!
Furniture catalogue for LotRO housing
If you're the proud new owner of a Lord of the Rings Online abode, and are going through the pains of organizing and decorating, then this guide may be right up your alley. Hot on the heels of Book 11's player-housing, LotroLife.com have started a furniture catalogue to help make life easier for citizens of Middle Earth who are settling in to a new home.The catalogue, still in beta and being added to, contains a listing of house-items by type. Clicking through to a category, and then an individual item, will bring up a picture of said item, a short description, the cost, and exactly where to get a hold of it. Very handy! The items can also be selected directly from a drop-down menu.As more things will undoubtedly be added in the future, the site may be worth a bookmark if you feel you may have an ongoing affair with decking out your place. After all, the next time your neighbours visit to smoke some pipe-weed, you want them leaving jealous, don't you?
A look at new LotRO loot from 'The Rift'
TenTonHammer has posted a guide that looks at some of the loot from Lord of the Rings Online's new raid instance, 'The Rift of Nurz Ghashu', in which players get to band together to hunt down a poor defenseless Balrog. There will eventually be more parts to the guide, but this first installment examines the loot rewarded from handing in Rift-iron coins.The aforementioned coins are obtained by turning in ore from The Rift, and are then traded on for various items. Note that the coins are not used to get class-specific sets -- these will come from the dropped gems, covered in a future guide. The coins can be traded for some useful consumables, or other general armor pieces (which still look like fairly decent items). Almost all armor items will cost 2 coins, with the one exception being a 4-coin ring, and the consumables are between 1-2 coins each. It looks like even if you aren't lucky enough to get your hands on a gem during a raid, grabbing some ore to trade for coins can still net you some nice new shineys. The full list of coin loot, with stats and costs, is available via the link below.
Performance suggestions for LotRO, Book 11
There's some discussion on the IGN forums about how to improve performance in Lord of the Rings Online, Book 11. The poster suggests that the method "made the game run as good as it did when I first started to play". Overall, there's some question as to the overall efficacy of the method, which is to move or remove all the files from My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online, including the settings file (which will of course be set back to the defaults that you had when you first started to play. Perhaps there's a saving to be had by moving or removing large numbers of snapshots, however my own experiments didn't bear that out. Instead, I'd suggest setting MultiPassLighting=False in UserPreferences.ini if your LotRO frame rates are suffering.
Jeffrey Steefel on all things Book 11
Tentonhammer have got a great interview up on their site with the executive producer of Lord of the Rings Online, Jeffrey Steefel, discussing all things Book 11. (LotRO Books are roughly equivalent to major content patches in other MMOs)A lot of the new content in the update is discussed, ranging from the three-piece, 12-man Balrog raids, to... usable cowbell & bagpipe musical instruments. Blue Öyster Cult would be proud. It also features player characters first encounter with the wonderfully crazy Gollum, with promises that he'll play a major role in the LotRO storyline -- although what kind of role is still being kept under wraps, it's probably not a wild guess to assume he'll be causing a lot of trouble. Nassty hobbitses!Player housing (covered just a few days ago by us) is discussed too. It's a strange -- risky? -- move incorporating player housing into a patch, rather than an expansion pack or, as in certain popular other MMOs, not at all -- yet Jeff comes across as enthusiastic about the subject, and Turbine appear to have thought it through carefully. He also does everything except say "there will be an expansion!" without ... actually saying it. But we all know it's coming, amiright?Book 11 also included some love for the Loremaster & Minstrel classes, the latter of which sorely needed some outside of healing.The interview is three pages long, and definitely worth a read if you're a LotRO fan.
LotRO housing won't be barren forever
Ever since Turbine dropped the Book 11 update to Lord of the Rings Online, much of the attention usually focused on new content as been siphoned away in discussions about the game's new, and admittedly flawed, housing system. Though players continue to be excited about the prospect of filling their homes with exotic goods, a common sentiment seems to be that though the inside of the houses are fantastic, the instanced neighborhoods in which they reside are... sparse. Like a new suburban development, these neighborhoods are immaculately trimmed and utterly, unsatisfyingly barren.Never let it be said that Turbine isn't mindful of their fans. Forum moderator Scenario was there with a quick reply. To wit, "As housing receives continued exposure, we will be looking over our metrics and seeing how much more we can add while still providing an environment that performs adequately (so far we don't have anything to worry about but we've never instanced landscape in this fashion before, so we wanted to be cautious at first). At the soonest, you may see some new NPCs added to neighborhoods in Book 12 - but I make no guarantees!"We can't fault them for wanting to be cautious, but we want more surly dwarf milkmen! But anyway, there's your answer.
More LotRO house brokers added to meet demand
Following Book 11's update and the addition of player housing, the allure of one's own Hobbit-hole or sturdy Dwarven lodging has brought droves of people to the brokers -- so much so, in fact, that Turbine has made a post on their official Lord of the Rings Online forums to say that there will be a few more brokers on the way.The extra auctioneers will be showing up to assist their overburdened co-workers in Bree-land, The Shire, and both the Dwarven and Elvish regions of Ered Luin homesteads. However, take note that these guys are temps -- the post states that they "may depart at any time" -- so it is likely that once demand dies down, they will be out of a job. Click below to read Turbine's post and find out the exact locations for the brokers.
LotRO servers busy after Book 11 rolls out
While server populations remained relatively normal in the first hour or so after Book 11: Defenders of Eriador, rolled out today, this evening is painting quite a different picture. All of the servers are busy this-evening, and the Brandywine, Elendilmir, Silverlode and Landroval servers are particularly busy, with logon queues for would-be adventurers. The OOC and Advice channels are full of chatter and questions about the new Player housing. Where it is, how to get it, what it's all about. Comparatively few players seem to have checked out the Lorebook's Housing category, particularly there are helpful maps identifying the location of the four housing zones: Bree-lands Homesteads, The Shire Homesteads, Falathlorn Homesteads, and Thorin's Hall Homesteads. Each entry links to details about the features of each property in the Homestead group. Check out our Book 11 tips and Known issues, and take up arms against the Witch King!
Update to Book 11 tips
Lord of the Rings Online officials have clarified their Housing abandonment policy. Earlier today we reported that abandoning a house will leave it unavailable for purchase for 24 hours. Community Manager Patience clarified that players are the ones with the 24 hour lock out on purchasing. How long it takes for Housing to become available after abandonment is now unclear, but may be as little as 12 hours.Patience also clarified that new Housing instances spawn in sets of 3-5 and the practice of buying and abandoning houses will not get them to spawn any faster.We also found another great resource for patch goodness, LotRO Vault's Patch Tree. They are posting screenshots of new items, NPCs, places, etc introduced in today's Book 11 update, including the image above of the new birch trees players can buy to decorate their new Hobbit homesteads.Also, keep an eye on the Known Issues for Book 11 thread over on the official LotRO forums. Some early bugs have already been identified.
Useful tips for Book 11
As Lord of the Rings Online players happily patch away in anticipation of buying housing, summoning their new stealth Lynx or gearing up to take down a Balrog, we at Massively wanted to provide you with a few tips and links to help you get started. Can't find the instance portals leading to the new Housing Neighborhoods? Female Gamer has screenshots of the where each Housing instance is on the map for all four racial areas. Eight more Housing Brokers, in addition to the ones in front of the Housing Instance portals, will be temporarily available to help people buy property. Check here for a list of where to find them. You cannot "hold" a house for a friend by buying it and then releasing it. Releasing a house starts a 24 hour timer before that residence is available for sale again. The Epic story for Book 11, 'Prisoner of the Free Peoples', starts where Book 10 ended, with Calenglad on the island of Tinnudir in Evendim. And don't worry if you don't get the residence you want. A new neighborhood instance is spawned as soon as the current one is sold out.
LotRO down for update to book 11
Lord of the Rings Online is offline as of now (6AM ET) for an update to the new Book 11, Defenders of Eriador. There are updates to Minstrels and Lore-masters, player housing, a Balrog and more in this new update. All things being equal, LotRO is set to return around Noon ET. If you're looking for something to while away the hours, check out some of our other great content, read the patch notes and save yourself valuable time downloading the patch (900MB, so get in early)! The battle against the Witch King's minions returns at Noon!
